Coronation Chicken Sandwich Image Used Under Creative Commons License From thehungarybuddha.com
Citizens, coronation chicken is a combination of precooked cold chicken meat, raisins, herbs and spices, and a creamy mayonnaise-based sauce which can be eaten as a salad or used to fill sandwiches.
Constance Spry, an English food writer and flower arranger, and Rosemary Hume, a chef, both principals of the Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London, are credited with the invention of coronation chicken.
Preparing the food for the banquet of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, Spry proposed the recipe of cold chicken, curry cream sauce and dressing that would later become known as coronation chicken.
Coronation chicken may have been inspired by jubilee chicken, a dish prepared for the silver jubilee of George V in 1935, which mixed chicken with mayonnaise and curry. Additionally, for the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002, another celebratory dish was devised, also called Jubilee chicken.
However, it was Rosemary Hume who was actually behind coronation chicken, the recipe for which went on to appear in the first edition, in 1956, of The Constance Spry Cookery Book and is indeed still to be found in the modern edition.
“One would not venture to serve, to a large number of guests of varying and unknown tastes, a curry dish in the generally accepted sense of this term,” wrote Spry. “I doubt whether many of the 300-odd guests at the coronation luncheon detected this ingredient [curry powder] in a chicken dish which was distinguished mainly by a delicate and nutlike flavour in the sauce.”
In the UK, this dish has become something of a 50’s cliché, much like cocktail hotdogs on a stick for Americans. TFD has redefined the dish to have some millennial attitude through the addition of horseradish, ! 🙂 It truly deserves a renaissance in your kitchen. Enjoy this, perhaps as part of a British High Tea…
1 head garlic, halved crosswise, plus 2 cloves, finely chopped
1 star anise
½ lemon, thinly sliced
½ orange, thinly sliced
Kosher salt, to taste
3 tbsp. unsalted butter
1 tbsp. curry powder
¼ cup flour
¼ cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. currants
4 cloves black garlic, minced finely
2 tbsp. finely chopped dried apricots
1 ¼ cups mayonnaise
½ cup Greek-style yogurt
¼ cup mango chutney
⅛ cup freshly grated horseradish
1 tbsp. fresh lime juice
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup slivered toasted almonds
Dill fronds
Thinly sliced fresh white or brown bread
Mixed greens
Instructions
Put chicken pieces in pot of water, covered by water to 1″ above the meat – boil hard and remove scum.
Add peppercorns, celery, roughly chopped onion, thinly sliced ginger, leek, halved garlic head, star anise, lemon, orange, and salt.
Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, partially covered, for 1 hour. Remove saucepan from heat and let cool.
Remove chicken from pan and set aside. Pour stock through a fine strainer into a 4-qt. saucepan, and bring to a boil over high heat; cook until reduced to 1 cup, about 1 ½ hours. Let cool.
Meanwhile, remove meat from chicken breasts and tear into thick strips, discarding skin and bones; refrigerate. Discard drumstick pieces or snack as you see fit.
To make the sauce, heat butter in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium heat. Add finely chopped onion, ginger, and garlic and cook, stirring, until soft, 3–5 minutes.
Add curry powder, cook for 2 minutes, and stir in flour. Cook, stirring, for about 1 minute. Add reduced stock and bring to a boil; cook, stirring constantly, until thick, 1–2 minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in cream. Pour sauce through a fine strainer into a large bowl and discard solids. Stir currants, minced black garlic and apricots into sauce, and let cool.
Add mayonnaise, yogurt, horseradish, chutney, and lemon juice to cooled sauce, season with salt and pepper, and whisk to combine. Add chicken to cooled sauce, and toss to combine; refrigerate. Add almonds just before serving and garnish with dill fronds.
If making a sandwich, cut the crusts off bread, add a thin layer of mixed greens, add chicken on top, finish with a top piece of bread and cut into pieces.
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